“The Internet and Financial Services: A practical guide”: A reception to mark the 20th anniversary of the CSFI’s ground-breaking book.

Held on Monday, October 16, 2017

Speakers

Charlotte Crosswell (Innovate Finance)

Tim Jones (Tibado)

Agenda

Twenty years ago, City & Financial published a book produced by the (then young and callow) CSFI on what this new-fangled “web” thing would mean for the financial services sector. I wrote the introduction, which was a history of the Internet to that date (before I had ever accessed the Net) – but, much more important, we put together eight working groups covering retail banking, personal finance, insurance/reinsurance, equity trading, regulation, payments and settlement, security and crime. Around 140 people were involved – many of whom are still active in the City.

We got some things wrong (we focused on set-top boxes, for example); but we got a lot right – and, all in all, the book was way ahead of its time.

We are, therefore, delighted that, thanks to the generosity of the Corporation of London, we have been able to organise a reception to mark the anniversary, to indicate what we got right and what we got wrong – and to point the way to the next 20 years.

We are also delighted that Charlotte Crosswell, CEO at Innovate Finance, has agreed to kick off proceedings, and that Tim Jones has agreed to respond – marking two generations of the City’s leadership in financial technology.

Charlotte took over as chief executive at Innovate Finance in August, having spent most of her career at TheCityUK, LCH and Nasdaq, before leaping full-time into the world of FinTech in 2016. At the time we published our book, Tim was running the retail bank at NatWest. Before that, he had developed Mondex – the first multipurpose pre-paid card, which was way ahead of its time. Since then, he has revolutionised the UK’s pension system, developed new payments systems and, latterly, has been promoting a new digital fiat currency design for central banks. I am delighted that both have agreed to talk, and I hope there will be time for a brief Q&A session afterwards.

If you (or a colleague, or anyone you know who was associated with the original book) would like to join us for what will be both a celebration and an exploration, would you please let us know by emailing the CSFI at alex@csfi.org or by calling the Centre on 0207 621 1056.